TLC Travel,[2] stylised as tlc, is a bus operator based in Bradford which operates bus services across West Yorkshire. Founded in 2000 as Trish Lambert Coaches using a single coach for private hire services, as of September 2017, TLC Travel now operate 57 buses across three depots in Bradford, Huddersfield and Todmorden.

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History

TLC Travel was founded on 26 January 2000 as Trish Lambert Coaches by Patricia "Trish" Lambert, who remains the current owner of TLC Travel. Trish Lambert Coaches initially operated a single coach, purchased second-hand, on private hire services.

The company began to expand after winning Bradford AccessBus contracts from West Yorkshire Metro, adopting the name TLC Travel and operating these new services out of a new depot in the West Bowling area of Bradford. Initially, second-hand Mercedes-Benz Sprinter minibuses were used, with four brand new Optare Solos arriving in October and November 2000. These were painted in West Yorkshire Metro's house colours of red and white; as TLC Travel won tenders for more services, they adopted a cream and navy blue livery based on the former colours of Bradford Corporation.

TLC took delivery of three Optare Alero minibuses in 2003 however, these proved unreliable, and all had been sold by 2008 and replaced by further Solos. Three brand new Solos were purchased in October 2004, followed by three Slimline examples in June 2005; a single Mercedes-Benz Sprinter in June 2006; three Optare Solo Slimlines in April 2007; and a further three Solo Slimlines in December 2007.

TLC Travel subsequently opened depots in Huddersfield in 2015 following a gain of several services from First and Yorkshire Tiger and Todmorden in 2014 after gaining Hebden Bridge and Todmorden local services from First. as they won more rural and small town bus route tenders across West Yorkshire including services around Otley from 2010 to 2016 and Keighley from 2012 to 2018. In April 2009, TLC took delivery of seven brand new Optare Solo Slimlines, their largest order for new buses to date; with the new arrivals they introduced their current fleet numbering system, consisting of the last four or five numbers of the vehicle's chassis code (or VIN number); this was retroactively applied to existing members of the fleet as well.

As they continued to expand, TLC took delivery of a single Optare Solo Slimline in April 2010; twelve ADL Enviro200s in April and May 2012; single Optare Solo SR Slimlines in January and October 2013, followed by six more in January 2014; another twelve Enviro200s between January and May 2015; another Solo SR Slimline in April 2015, followed by six more between October and December 2015; and, most recently, two further Enviro200s in May 2016 which were purchased for newly acquired routes 900/901 Huddersfield to Hebden Bridge.

A new depot in Bradford is currently under construction and is expected to open in October 2017 , replacing the existing Bradford depot though this deadline has long since surpassed with the new depot yet to be operational. In July 2017, TLC Travel trialled a Mellor Strata-bodied Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 515 CDI minibus at their Todmorden depot on Hebden Bridge town services ahead of a potential future order for the type.